By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com
photo by Gawne
Mamma Clause (Ruthie Hayash) and Santa Clause (David Orley) encourage their tall elf Dudley (Randall Walter) to go for it.
If you think that joyful Christmas spirit comes in a bottle – you could be correct, sir! At least in so far as the Gaslight Theatre gang is concerned in their holiday special “Elf'd.”
This stage theatrical does bear some resemblance to the movie that's so similarly named. At least, the elf costumes are similar and Santa Clause looks almost exactly the same as he does on the big screen.
As for the bottle, that's a uniquely Gaslight invention. A slender container smaller than a Coke bottle is filled with a secret formula for Christmas Spirit, cleverly devised by Dudley, the only human ever raised by the industrious little people who run Santa's workshop at the North Pole.
At the Gaslight, all the shows are double and triple cast, so at the performance I attended, Dudley was played by Randall Walter. Dudley is a curious human, orphaned at birth, now determined to meet his true father, who turns out to be a captain of industry living at the top of a tall building in New York City.
Dastardly forces led by hulking Brad Hawkins (Mike Yarema) in an intimidating dark gray overcoat are determined to destroy every child's Christmas happiness by seizing control of the North Pole's toy making facilities, thus bringing all the workshop's output to a complete halt!
Only by using the meanest Yuletide chicanery imaginable, Hawkins has taken control of that little bottle of Christmas Spirit.
That's about all of the plot you need to know. This is the Gaslight Theatre, after all, where a happy ending is guaranteed at every performance.
Wally (Jacob Brown) is gloweringly good as Hawkins' evil associate. So is Heather Stricker as Hawkins' ambitious secretary.
Joining forces on the sweet side of this snowy conflict are Erin Thompson as Polly the most optimistic elf ever. She keeps pumping up insecure Dudley, insuring him he is definitely not a “fluffer nutter noodle noggin.”
Janee Page is the tough New Yorker trying to get hired as a department store elf for Christmas. She even has her own elf costume. Which pretty much convinces Dudley she really is another human elf, just like him.
Ruthie Hayashi, meanwhile, brings genuine maternal warmth to her role as Mama Claus.
Caught in the middle is Todd Thompson as Billy, who just wants to do the right thing.
David Orley gets the plum role of Santa, with his big laugh, bigger beard and resplendent red velvet suit trimmed in white.
While most Christmas plays hold off on introducing Santa until the very end, in “Elf'd” Santa makes an early appearance and pops up frequently during the show, which is always extra fun for all the children.
Just in case you are still not feeling the full-on Gaslight Happy Holidays, mistletoe and pumpkin-pie-in-the-oven joyfulness yet, the aftershow olio takes us back to that long-ago December in the big-box-small-screen television era of the Andy Williams Christmas Special.
Yes, of course there is a special number for knee-high elves who sing, and another for singing reindeer with cloven hooves and black noses.
Jokes? Well, sure. The woman who was obsessed with everything Christmas was diagnosed as being “too Santa-mental.”
While the little kid who ate all the decorations for the Christmas Tree ended up with “tinsel-itis.”
Meanwhile, the even smaller child who was fearfully afraid of Santa came down with “Claus-trophobia.”
Can you hear the laughter? I guess you just have to be there.
“Elf'd” continues through Jan. 2 with multiple daily performances most days. Reservations are absolutely necessary.
None of the actors are masked, but all of the staff wear masks at all times. Audience members may unmask to eat and drink.
For ticket details and full COVID requirements, go to www.thegaslighttheatre.com, phone 886-9428, or visit the Gaslight Theatre box office, 7010 E. Broadway.
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